McLaughlin won his first race in the NZ Touring Car series in early 2011, becoming the youngest ever driver to win a race in the Championship at just 17 years old.[2] Then in 2012 he competed in the New Zealand V8SuperTourers Championship and became the inaugural series champion.

McLaughlin began racing karts when he was eight, and represented New Zealand in the Rotax Max Challenge held in Italy,[4][5] but had long aspired to race V8s, and was given a trial in one at Stone Brothers Racing while doing work experience there.[3]

In 2010, McLaughlin confirmed that he would be racing for Stone Brothers Racing in the 2010 Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series at just 16 years of age, becoming the youngest ever V8 Supercar driver.[3] He didn't make his debut until the second round of the series, due to him not having the appropriate competition licence.[6]

McLaughlin continued with Garry Rogers Motorsport into 2014, under its new identity as Volvo Polestar Racing (later Volvo Cyan Racing). At March 1, 2014, McLaughlin scored a podium finish in Volvo's return to the series at the Clipsal 500 Adelaide. Four race wins at Barbagallo, Sydney Motorsport Park, and 2 wins at Phillip Island. He finished 5th in the standings.

For 2017, McLaughlin moved from Garry Rogers Motorsport to DJR Team Penske to partner Fabian Coulthard. Throughout the year, McLaughlin was dominant in qualifying; acquiring 16 pole positions. Along with a string of strong results, McLaughlin would find himself in the box seat for a maiden championship title. After starting strongly in the final round at Newcastle, a chaotic second race saw McLaughlin pick up three penalties which would eventually contribute toward him narrowly missing out on the title to Jamie Whincup.

In 2018, McLaughlin continued to race with DJR Team Penske. He won seven out of the 34 races, winning in Melbourne, Phillip Island, Barbagallo, Hidden Valley and Ipswich. McLaughlin finished third at Bathurst alongside Alexandre Prémat in which was the Ford Falcon's final appearance at Mount Panorama. On 4 November, at Pukekohe Park Raceway, McLaughlin won race twenty-nine to join compatriot Shane van Gisbergen in winning the Jason Richards Memorial Trophy. In Newcastle, McLaughlin won race thirty (after van Gisbergen was stripped of his victory following a pit lane violation, demoting him to fifth) and finished second in race thirty-one to become the 2018 Virgin Australia Supercars champion.